CAIRO: While legal experts welcomed the Ministry of Culture's
decision to crack down on websites violating intellectual property
rights (IPR), they questioned its ability to implement it.

"It's a good step by the Ministry of Culture,"
Hossam Loutfi, legal counselor for the Association of Authors, Composers
and Publishers told Daily News Egypt, "However the problem is not
with the lack of decrees or laws, it's with implementing
them."

Last month, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni issued a decree ordering the immediate shut down of any website that violates IPR laws
and regulations.

The decree was issued on Aug. 31, in response to a complaint
received by the Central Association of Audio and Visual Recordings
Producers (CAVRP) indicating that websites are broadcasting their
material without prior permission, in violation of their IPR.

"A number of websites stole songs from CAVRP and broadcast
them repeatedly without authorization from the producers, who in this
case are the rightful owners of the products in question," the
Ministry of Culture's legal counselor Ashraf Ashmawy told Daily
News Egypt.

According to a statement issued by the ministry, the CAVRP, also a
member of the International Producers Association, are required to
provide the ministry with a database of the rightful owners of products.

This database will then be approved by the Ministry of
Culture's Central Administration for Monitoring Artistic Products
(CAMAP).

According to Ashmawy, artists should register themselves and their
product at the CAVRP. However, Loutfi maintains that many artists
aren't registered.

The CAMAP's responsibility lies in monitoring the websites and
notifying the Ministry of Communications to shut down websites that
breach IPR laws.

"The Ministry of Communications is the only authority that has
the jurisdiction to shut down a website, but it cannot do it without a
prior notification from the Ministry of Culture," Ashmawy
explained.

According to Loutfi, "Around 90 percent of the websites'
headquarters that are accused of stealing others intellectual property
rights exist in America or Israel, not Egypt, and some are mobile, they
keep changing their location, so it's impossible to locate
them," he said.

"Even if we do, Egyptian laws don't apply on them and
there's no cooperation between Egypt and the Interpol on crimes
related to websites, so you can't arrest them, that's what led
to the chaotic state of intellectual property rights' theft we live
in today," Loutfi explained.

"We [the Association of Authors, Composers and Publishers]
have filed

several police reports against websites that violate the intellectual
property rights of many artists, but the police said they couldn't
find the location or identity of the accused," he added.

Ashmawy, however, said that the Ministry of Communications has the
jurisdiction to close down any website in Egypt, even if its
headquarters are located abroad.

"The ministry then notifies the responsible authorities abroad
of its reasons for shutting down the website in Egypt and it's up
to the authority abroad to decide whether to shut down the website
abroad or not," he said.

Ashmawy stressed that the key to the culture ministry's decree
lies in the swift action to stop IPR violations by shutting down the
website the same day a complaint is filed against it without having to
wait for a court order.

"The Ministry of Communications can only shut down these
websites temporarily until it gets a court order that supports its
decision, if the court decides the Ministry of Communications made a
mistake, then the ministry will pay a compensation to the website for
shutting it down," he said.

The ministry also stipulated that CAMAP issue a quarterly report
with findings regarding monitoring the websites and the number of
complaints filed against violations of IPR, according to the 2002
intellectual property rights law.

Last week, the Association for the Freedom of Thought and
Expression (AFTE) filed a law suit against the minister's decree
saying that it's a violation of the freedom of information access
and circulation.

The AFTE said the ministry should differentiate between punishing the violators and depriving the public from their right to access
information.

Both Ashmawy and Loutfi criticized AFTE's stance, stating that
the toughest procedures need to be taken to fight these kinds of crimes.

AFTE issued a statement citing international human rights laws that
guarantee people's rights to the circulation of information and
access to knowledge, including Article 19 of the International Covenant
in Civil and Political Rights.